Second term brings renewed hope for many

By Compiled by Gazette staff

Published: Monday, January 21, 2013 at 04:43 PM.

“We want the dream to live and in order for it to live, we need to come together and solve the problems that exist,” she said. “If we develop an appreciation and an understanding of our differences, we can do that.”

Republican Party chair Craig Collins

Craig Collins doesn’t subscribe to the same political party as the president. But party lines shouldn’t separate them or other Americans, according to Collins.

Collins, chairman of the Gaston County Republican Party, wants Obama to unite the nation.

“I hope that he fulfills the promise that he made four years ago of uniting our country and getting us past partisan divide,” he said. “I hope that in the next four years that he will reach out to the Republicans and stop demonizing Republicans fighting for lowering spending and smaller government,” he said.

Collins wants to see the economy stabilize and grow – something he says Obama failed to accomplish during his first term in office. Collins said Obama’s strategy has relied on government intervention and spending.

“Any benefit that we see from those types of programs is going to be short term and harm us in the long run,” he said. “He needs to realize that we need to control spending and that’s how we will allow our economy to grow successfully.”

Local residents watched from the nation’s capitol and their living rooms as President Barack Obama was publicly sworn into office to serve another four years.The public inauguration of the nation’s first black president took place on the 45th anniversary of the commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

Here’s what some local leaders had to say about the inauguration and their hopes for the next four years in office.

“His own main key point is we don’t want to leave anybody out,” Duff said. “I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do as a whole for the country.”

The president may face difficulty uniting a country where Democrats and Republicans are often at odds about the issues. But Duff said the president’s message focused on working together as a country to accomplish goals rather than being divided.

Gaston County Democratic Party Chairman Robert Kellogg

Kellogg used his laptop to stream video of the inauguration.

“I think our president did a wonderful job in laying out an ambitious agenda for the next four years. He also eloquently played homage to Martin Luther King Jr. with his message of equality for all Americans,” Kellogg said.

The nation needs to get beyond the constant gridlock that divides people and start to work together as Americans, Kellogg said.

“I firmly believe that we need to work on the economy and reducing the debt. And immigration reform,” Kellogg said. “Personally, myself, the issue of equality is what really stood out to me.”

Obama’s inaugural speech mentioned Seneca Falls, N.Y., where the first women’s rights convention was held; Selma, Ala., where a historic black voting right march started; and Stonewall, the place where a riot over gay rights broke out in New York’s Greenwich Village.

“We’re all Americans, and we all have a place at the table, and we all need to come together and respect one another and get along together,” Kellogg said. “This president continues to try to include everybody. And that just really touches me, and I think that’s just a wonderful characteristic of this president and this presidency that all people have a place. In such divisive times, it’s just nice to have our president remind us that we all have a place.”

The Rev. T.S. Gillespie

The Rev. T.S. Gillespie of Hebron, the Church of Jesus Christ, awoke early Monday in anticipation of watching the inauguration with his mother, at his home in Lowell.

It was made more special by the fact that it was occurring on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“Given that (King) said all men will be judged on the content of their character and what they do, not the color of their skin, I’m very proud to see this historical day for President Obama and for all Americans,” Gillespie said.

Gillespie said he hopes that Obama will become a “unifier” in his second term, bringing together Democrats and Republicans. The nation is too divided right now, he said.

“He’s got to reach out to the other side of the aisle,” he said. “And they’ve got to reciprocate by reaching out to him.”

With the slight improvement that has been seen in the country’s economic recovery, Gillespie wants to see the president continue to build on that. He sees the United States’ continued emergence from some of its darkest days as becoming a highlight of Obama’s administration.

“I think his legacy will be that he took us from a huge depression, almost like the Great Depression, into a great recovery,” he said. “I think he understands the economy has to be made better to continue America’s strength and growth.”

Gaston County school board member Dot Guthrie

As Dot Guthrie watched Monday’s inauguration festivities, she was struck by a poet who at one point recited several verses based on the “uniqueness of one.”

Guthrie said Obama will need to embrace that concept over the next four years, and convince others to do the same.

“I think what the president would really like to see is people coming together and being united as one, so that many of his dreams and our dreams will be accomplished,” she said. “If we’re divided, that cannot and will not happen.”

Obama and the other leaders in Congress have to be willing to pin down the country’s needs in spite of their differences, and without becoming defensive, Guthrie said. Ineffective attempts to work together in the past have to be abandoned, she said.

“If we lay aside our differences and look to the whole, then we are going to hopefully identify what needs to be done,” she said.

The poet also referenced the dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., providing more useful perspective Obama will need in his second term, Guthrie said.

“We want the dream to live and in order for it to live, we need to come together and solve the problems that exist,” she said. “If we develop an appreciation and an understanding of our differences, we can do that.”

Republican Party chair Craig Collins

Craig Collins doesn’t subscribe to the same political party as the president. But party lines shouldn’t separate them or other Americans, according to Collins.

Collins, chairman of the Gaston County Republican Party, wants Obama to unite the nation.

“I hope that he fulfills the promise that he made four years ago of uniting our country and getting us past partisan divide,” he said. “I hope that in the next four years that he will reach out to the Republicans and stop demonizing Republicans fighting for lowering spending and smaller government,” he said.

Collins wants to see the economy stabilize and grow – something he says Obama failed to accomplish during his first term in office. Collins said Obama’s strategy has relied on government intervention and spending.

“Any benefit that we see from those types of programs is going to be short term and harm us in the long run,” he said. “He needs to realize that we need to control spending and that’s how we will allow our economy to grow successfully.”

Devoted Democrat Patricia Franks

Patricia Franks stands behind her president.

She stood with pride in Washington, D.C., and watched Obama get sworn in four years ago, and she made the trip again this year.

The Belmont woman attended a multitude of events in the nation’s capitol, saying she was just too excited.

Franks said that the president faced some colossal challenges during his first term in office, but she feels he did the best he could under the circumstances. She said that if Americans erased party lines to improve the country, the United States would be a greater nation.

“I hope that everybody, Republicans and Democrats, will see the need for working together,” she said. “The people are going to demand it.”